Aakriti Taneja BMMMC I Year II Semester Roll No.

- 11/1735 CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF STAR NEWS Star News, launched on 31 March 2003 in Mumbai, made a successful transition to a 24-hour Hindi News channel, reaching out to wider audiences across India. The channel, on its very first day, broadcasted an exclusive interview with Mr. Yashwant Sinha, Cabinet Minister for External Affairs. Star News is a popular 24 hour satellite national news channel in India which broadcasts shows related to news and current events entirely in Hindi. This is a news channel which offers its viewers all the news which is relevant to contemporary India. The programming of Star News Channel covers the full spectrum of news ranging from politics to business, investigative reports to consumer issues, crime to the environment. Star News keeps the viewers across the country, fully informed and engaged through the process of reporting news as it happens in India and with links to international news agencies. Star News Channel is also available in Hong Kong, Middle East, Europe, Philippines and Thailand. Headquarter of the news channel is in the Star News Centre, Mumbai. As a responsible news channel, STAR News has been at the forefront of empowering its viewers through information, by exposing evils in the society with an objective of cautioning people and as a social crusade for a better society. The core value of STAR News is to present news from the viewer's perspective, analyzing an issue and accordingly predicting its future results. The famous reporters of Star News are- Sandeep Chowdhary, Ajay Kumar, Aparna Kala, Gaurav Banerjee, Sidharth Sharma, Radhika Chaturvedi, etc. Some of the programs which are a part of the programming of Star News are : Star Savera- the Channel broadcasts its first news bulletin in the morning at 6 a.m with Star Savera, which carries special reports by the night shift team. It also includes updates on domestic news from the night before and covers international news and showcases a look at the day ahead. National Reporter- N a t i o n a l R e p o r t e r i s a d a i l y 8 . 0 0 p m r e p o r t e r ' s n e w s b u l l e t i n w h e r e t h e s e n i o r - m o s t S t a r N e w s j o u r n a l i s t s c o v e r s t h e d a y' s domestic news of national importance. It focuses on the political, financial and legal developments in Delhi and the state capitals. City 60 is all about the big cities, creating news on famous people, glamour, nightlife, crime and passion. This city focused primetime news bulletin provides comprehensive coverage of the days news from Mumbai, Delhi and other major cities of India, also dealing with issues like civic amenities, public transportation and the quality of life. Sansani- Hosted by Shrivardhan Trivedi Sansani, an engaging crime bulletin on STAR News, gives one a daily account of the latest news from the world of crime across the country. The program recreates the actual scene of crime vividly, wherever needed, to give the viewing audience a real taste of the crime scene. The show brings the viewer face-to-face with the reality of crime all over the country, keeping him aware and on guard. I personally appreciate the channels efforts to broadcast a

program such as Sansani which focuses mainly on reality. Even though it is sensationalized but coming in terms with reality and tackling it in future if ever one comes across such a situation. 24 ghante 24 reporter- A crisp, fast-paced pioneering effort in news programming, this bulletin delivers 24 stories in 30 minutes in a rapid-fire, reporter-led, never before attempted format. The program consists of segments like Sabse Badi Khabar, Desh, Shahar, Gunah, Duniya, Khel, Karobar, Cinema and TV to provide a themed delivery of news. This particular format is not always possible to handle. So in order to cover up the 24 stories, a particular story is usually broken into several stories to fulfill the criteria of this particular format which in itself is incorrect. The USP for Star News is its story-like news format. Accordingly, the strengths of Star News Channel are that even though it started as bilingual (English and Hindi) news channel but soon turned out to be a Hindi news channel, targeting common man of the country. Its another advantage is that it presents a mix of rolling entertainment bulletins and specialized shows covering topics from crime to cricket and offers a huge variety. The weaknesses of Star News Channels are more as compared to its strengths. It is observed that the analysis of Star News is higly partial and tends to support the Indian National Congress (INC). Secondly, entertainment and news is clubbed together like reality shows on other channels. Thirdly, the concept of breaking news is redefined here. Usually, Star News puts up all such breaking news which arent required at all. Fourthly, Star News presents news in filmy fashion which is unacceptable by many viewers. Lastly, this news channel tends to not show news as news and hampers it which arises questions on the channels own talent and abilities.